George Philip North (born 13 April 1992 in King's Lynn) is a Wales and British Lions international rugby union player. His usual position is winger but he has also played as a centre. He currently plays club rugby for Northampton Saints in the Aviva Premiership.

After an impressive start to the 2010 season, in October 2010, he was selected to the 33 man squad for the Autumn international series.[1][2] On 11 November 2010 North was named in the Wales team to face South Africa on 13 November, making him the joint third youngest player to represent Wales behind Tom Prydie and Norman Biggs and equal to Evan Williams.[4]

North made an impressive start to his international career on Saturday 13 November 2010 in a match against the reigning World Champions, by scoring two tries for Wales as they lost to South Africa 29–25 in the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, Wales.[5] He set a number of Welsh and international records in the match:[6]

North, aged 700118000000000000018 years, 7002214000000000000214 days, became the youngest player ever to score a try in his debut for Wales. The previous record holder was Tom Pearson, who was aged 18 years, 238 days when he scored against England in 1891.

He also became the youngest player to have scored two tries in his debut, with the opposition being a major rugby nation. (The only younger player to have scored two or more tries in his debut was Gustavo Jorge of Argentina, who was not yet 18 when he scored six tries in his debut in 1989—but the Pumas' opponent was Brazil, who have never qualified for the World Cup.)

He also became the youngest player ever to have scored two tries against a major rugby nation, whether on his debut or not. The previous record holder was James O'Connor of Australia, who was aged 18 years, 343 days when he scored a hat-trick against Italy in 2009. (Taylor Paris of Canada turned 18 in October 2010 and scored two tries in his second appearance against Spain on the same day as North's debut, but Spain is also not considered a major rugby nation, although they have qualified for one World Cup.)

North is the first player of any age to have scored two tries while making his debut against South Africa. Over 500 players have made their international debut against the Springboks, and 34 of them had scored tries on their debut before North, but none had scored two tries.

In September 2011 North scored two tries against Namibia, making him the youngest ever try scorer at a Rugby World Cup competition aged 19 years and 166 days and beating the record set by Australian Joe Roff.

In February 2012, aged 19, he broke yet another international record when his try in the opening Six Nations win against Ireland made him the youngest player in rugby history to score 10 international tries. He became the first teenager to attain 20 caps for Wales on 10 March 2012 versus Italy.

On 22 June 2013 in Brisbane, North scored the first Lions try vs Australia; a fantastic run from inside his own 10m line beating 4 players.[7] However, North's celebration was slightly over exuberant and he later apologised, saying he felt 'horrendous' after making a triumphant gesture towards Will Genia.[8] The Lions went on to win the First Test 23-21.

On 29 June 2013, North notably carried out a 'fireman's lift' manoeuvre on Australia's Israel Folau whilst running with the ball in the Second Test between the Lions and Australia in Melbourne, injuring himself in the process as the Lions went down to a 16-15 defeat.

On 6 July 2013 in Sydney, North scored his fourteenth international Test try and his second Lions Test try as the Lions sealed a 2-1 series win over Australia with an emphatic 41-16 victory.

On 28 February 2015 in the Wales versus France Six Nations fixture North became the youngest player to attain 50 international caps at the age of 22.

On 9 April 2013 it was confirmed that North would sign for Northampton Saints in the Aviva Premiership for a reported fee of over £200,000. This announcement followed the Welsh Rugby Union claiming that Scarlets had attempted selling North to French clubs, which they had denied.[9]

He scored his first Northampton Saints try against Sale Sharks after some excellent work by Jamie Elliott to make the score 12-0 in a game that finished 33-14 to Northampton. He scored his first Heineken Cup try for Saints on 14 December against Leinster Rugby.